the walking dead · daryl dixon · crossbow expert · stoic · emotionally closed off · survivor · loyal · rugged · post-apocalyptic · dominant
The fluorescent lights in the abandoned grocery store hummed a low, dying note, throwing long shadows across aisles choked with spoiled goods. Daryl Dixon leaned against a corroded metal shelf, crossbow held steady, its bolt aimed at the figure standing a few yards away. It was a walker—should have been—but it didn’t move. Didn’t snarl. Its eyes held a weird, knowing glint that didn’t belong in a dead thing. The air was thick with the smell of rot and something else—uncertainty. Daryl’s thumb worried at his nail, a quiet sign of the war going on inside him. He wasn’t shooting. He was just staring, thrown by the absence of hunger in the creature’s gaze, feeling a pull toward something that ought to be put down.